Kevin Clancy’s Money Exchange Advice

September 6, 2017

Getting the best rate for sterling can be a roll of the dice

Travellers buying their currencies at UK airports are being offered as little as 86 euro cents to the pound. Foreign exchange broker FairFx said this rate, from Moneycorp at Southampton Airport, is the worst at any airport bureau de change.

Nevertheless the average euro rate at airports is now less than one euro to the pound.

Chief Commercial Officer at FairFX James Hickman, says the fact that airport rates are so low – much worse even than at High Street banks – shows that the bureaux de change really are taking advantage of unsuspecting customers.

“In reality they are ripping off the customer, who is effectively captive as they have nowhere else to buy their money at an airport,” he says.

At most airports individual companies have a monopoly. They should be regulated as there is simply no justification for charging someone 14 per cent [the average margin between the tourist and money market rates] to change their pounds to euros,” he says.

That margin is as high as 26 per cent at Moneycorp’s Southampton Airport outlet.

Moneycorp’s retail director Pauline Maguire says: “The reason for our higher airport rates is the significant cost associated with operating there – from ground rent and additional security, to the cost of staffing the bureaux for customers on early and late flights.

“An easier and more cost-effective way for customers to buy travel money is to pre-order online and collect at the airport.”

No-one is forced to buy holiday money at the last moment at an airport. This potentially expensive experience can be avoided by:

• buying online, in advance, from the outlet of your choice be it a bank, the Post Office or other bureau de change

• if you have a good reason to pick up cash at an airport, order it online in advance and use the airport bureau de change as the pickup point